By Jonathan Camiolo

 

When I was about 12, I was on vacation with my family and few other families that we vacationed with every year, my friend Chris, 11, decided to go fishing off the dock where we had our cabins.  He wanted to cast his line out as far as he could in order to try to catch a big fish.  On one of his attempts, he reached back with the pole and line and with all his might swung his am forward over his head.  The problem was that the line was caught on a tree that was over his head and he ended up falling backwards off the dock towards some rowboats and the rocky shoreline.  His head hit the side of one of the boats knocking him unconscious and lying facedown in about 2 feet of water.  In a moment of grace, my other friend Rob, 13, saw it happen and ran to his aid and pulled Chris out of the water.  He was saved, not from a headache, but surely from drowning.  Chris was grateful to have Rob as a friend and in that moment a “savior”.

 

This weeks readings remind us that we are all drowning in some way or another and need a savior. It is hard at times for us to recognize that we need God, and even harder to admit, at times, that we need help.  In the first reading Naaman was sick with a lepersy, a disease that would kill him and one that was a plague even when living with it.  Through the power of God he was healed and claims the God of the Israelites, Yahweh, God the Father, as his God and the only true God.  In the gospel, Jesus heals 10 men of lepersy, but in the end, only one returns to say “thank you”.  One is grateful for the blessing of his healing; he had been saved from humiliation, pain, and sickness and showed deep thanksgiving.  

 

In our own lives, we all need a savior.  Without Christ and His death on the cross we are hopeless at entering heaven.  All of mankind waited for Him to come and redeem our fallen humanity.  Most of us forget that we can only go to heaven because of God’s grace and amazing love, and because of Jesus’ death that has saved us all.  We should be grateful don’t you think.  We should be certain like Naaman that we will serve and proclaim that our God is the true God and live to honor Him.  We should be like the one leper that returned to give thanks but always thinking God from the depth of who we are for saving us and opening the gates of Heaven.  

 

Do you recognize you need a savior?  That you were hopeless of getting into Heaven without Christ’s saving act on the cross?  Are you grateful or would you be like the nine that walked away without thanking Jesus for what He was done for us?  How will you respond to our Savior, Jesus Christ?  Think. Pray. Decide. Change.

 

God loves you!